Word: petted
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More companies are offering such perks as on-site massages and hair salons, take-home meals and pet health insurance, according to surveys by employee-benefits consultants. But there's a catch. Most of the new benefits are paid for by workers, the people being asked to do more work for the same--or lower--pay. Each week, for example, some 50,000 workers pay to use Pressed4Time, the dry-cleaning pickup-and-delivery franchise that is part of a growing suite of employer-facilitated "concierge" services. "Companies are adding 'soft' benefits that save employees time as opposed to 'hard...
...plastic bag--are realized with assured energy and balanced by a dozen deft comic performances, notably those of DeGeneres and Stanton himself as the lead sea turtle. Nemo has artistic and political resonances galore: it alludes to favorite movies, from Pinocchio to Psycho, and fearlessly takes on the powerful pet-shop and aquarium lobbies. There is also the secret insignia of any Pixar feature: a G-rated fart joke...
With more single people now than in the past 30 years, a lot of human affection, and cash, is being spent on pets. "For people who don't have children, animals are as dear," says Steve Cohen, the owner of Miami Beach's Dog Bar, which offers organic food for dogs, such as $30-per-lb. beef patties. Less than a decade ago, Americans spent $17 billion a year on pet products and services. But that was an era before Animal Planet and its famous pet psychic, before Judge Joseph Wapner moved from The People's to the Animal Court...
...leap from pet to companion has occurred not just in minds but in the legal system as well. A San Francisco city ordinance passed in January adds the word guardian to the designation of pet owner to acknowledge that pets are more than mere property, and a 2001 Oregon measure protects bequests left to dogs. You can forget leash laws; animal lovers are now lobbying their city councils for more dog parks. "This is part of a civil rights movement," says Alan Beck, professor of animal ecology and director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University...
...solidify the point that the dog has emerged--above expensive restaurants, home furnishings and even security--as the status symbol of the times, Martha Stewart's company will launch this fall a weekly pet-keeping show with Marc Marrone as host. No one in the canine cognoscenti will want to miss the episode on how to brush a dog's teeth. --Reported by Jeanne DeQuine/Miami, Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles and Deirdre van Dyk/New York